Bill Bordley, rookie, San Francisco Giant a left-handed pitcher takes aim at the strike zone during spring training workouts 3/7. Bordley was one of the top-draft pickes during the winter draft and the Giants finally signed him. At Southern CA he was the only freshman in the history of the school to go undeated in his freshman year.

Photo: UPI

Bill Bordley, rookie, San Francisco Giant a left-handed pitcher...

Image 2 of 2

Former San Francisco Giants pitcher Bill Bordley, now Major League Baseball's vice president of security and facility management photographed outside his office on Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York on November 28, 2011. Bill Bordley is a former secret service agent who was Chelsea Clinton's bodyguard.
Ran on: 11-29-2011
Bill Bordley, who pitched for the Giants in 1980, was a Secret Service agent before becoming baseball's security chief.

Long before Tim Lincecum, the Giants had a can't-miss pitching prospect, one who seemed sure to burst into the majors and be in charge for a long time.

It just took a little longer for Bill Bordley. At 53, he finally has security in baseball. In fact, he is security in baseball.

Shortly after the World Series, in an announcement few noticed, Major League Baseball named Bordley its security chief. As vice president of security and facility management, he's responsible for keeping every ballpark well-protected, especially if a president drops by.

That's nothing new for Bordley, who once protected presidents as a Secret Service agent.

Clearly, he went further in his Secret Service career - specializing in investigative work - than his big-league pitching career, which lasted all of eight games with the 1980 Giants. He went 2-3 with a 4.70 ERA, a major disappointment for the nation's top amateur, who had led USC to the 1978 national title.

"Nothing I would've loved more than to be a 20-game winner and win a World Series," Bordley said. "It didn't work out. But in the grand scheme of things, I saw the United States while playing ball and saw the world with the Secret Service."

Bordley spent 5 1/2 years on former President Bill Clinton's detail. He was assigned to task forces and cases targeting electronic crimes, identity theft, Internet fraud and counterfeiting, working hand in hand with worldwide intelligence agencies, including the CIA, and local law enforcement.

At the time, Bordley was in his late 30s and early 40s.

"It's a young man's game," he said.

For now, Bordley is satisfied protecting everyone in the baseball world, from ballplayers to the guy in the last row of the cheap seats, acting as Commissioner Bud Selig's lead liaison to teams' stadium operations departments.

High-profile cases

The beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow at Dodger Stadium is a case that'll always be referenced by MLB security, and Bordley, who wouldn't comment on it because of pending litigation, cited advanced technology among the resources that could be used to combat ballpark violence.

One of Bordley's first cases was that of Wilson Ramos, the Nationals' catcher who was abducted at gunpoint in his native Venezuela earlier this month and rescued by police commandos two days later. From afar, Bordley monitored the rescue operation through MLB's investigation division.

It's not foreign territory for Bordley, whose work in the Secret Service took him to 85 countries. In some capacity, he worked for every president from Ronald Reagan to Obama, mostly with Clinton. He was on Chelsea Clinton's security team and accompanied her at Stanford and elsewhere.

In 1997, Bordley got his name in a few newspapers for his work as one of Chelsea's bodyguards. The paparazzi wouldn't stop snapping pictures of her dancing at 2 a.m. at a disco in Florence, Italy, and Bordley was among the bodyguards who reportedly scuffled with the photographers and shoved them against a wall.

"They wouldn't let it go. It turned into an international incident. It's too convoluted a story to get into," said Bordley, noting it happened shortly before Princess Diana died in France in a car crash while being pursued by the paparazzi.

Turned away Lewinsky

Of course, most of Bordley's assignments were top secret and, as he said, "on a need-to-know basis," but it's no secret he once denied then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky access to the Oval Office because she didn't have her pass.

It's right there in the Starr Report.

Bordley testified for prosecutor Kenneth Starr that in late 1995 or early 1996, Clinton opened the Oval Office door and, as the report states, "indicated to Agent Bordley that Ms. Lewinsky's presence was all right, and ushered Ms. Lewinsky into the Oval Office. Agent Bordley saw Ms. Lewinsky leave about half an hour later."

"It's pretty well-documented" is how Bordley summed up his knowledge of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal.

Heralded prospect

Bordley's new gig in baseball brings his career full circle. He was the nation's best amateur in the spring of 1978, having compiled a 26-2 record over two years at USC. Scouts drooled over the 6-foot-3 left-hander, and a Sports Illustrated spread suggested he was the next Sandy Koufax in a story under this headline: "Dandy Not Unlike Sandy."

With his father having a heart attack and his brother hurt in a car accident, Bordley dropped out of USC, enrolled at El Camino College and made himself available for the winter draft, announcing he didn't want to play anywhere but the West Coast and pursuing a record signing bonus to help with the medical bills.

The Reds selected Bordley with the third pick even after he told non-California teams he wouldn't sign. Bordley threatened to return to USC, and Commissioner Bowie Kuhn - a buddy of Bordley's college coach, the legendary Rod Dedeaux - intervened. He voided the Reds' selection and charged the Angels, who had the fourth pick, with tampering.

Giants win the draw

Kuhn told Bordley to list five favored teams, one of which would be picked from a hat. Kuhn warned teams they'd need to pay at least a $150,000 bonus, and the A's and Padres dropped out. The Angels were ineligible. So Bordley listed the Dodgers, Mariners, Giants, Brewers (the team that had drafted him out of high school) and Royals.

"The Giants came out of the hat," Bordley said. "I spoke with (Giants general manager) Spec Richardson over the phone and signed for $242,000. I got a major-league contract, which got me a pension."

After a year and a half in the minors, Bordley was called up during a Dodgers series in June 1980.

"I'll never forget it," he said. "The only guy I knew was Willie McCovey, from spring training. I look over at his locker, and he's chewing the fat with Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda and Koufax. McCovey says, 'C'mon over. I want you to meet some of my friends.' I'm thinking, 'Oh my God.' "

Bordley made his big-league debut against the Reds. Jack Clark and Milt May homered off Tom Seaver, and Bordley yielded three runs in six innings for the win. He beat the Reds again in his next start but never won another game.

Bordley underwent two elbow surgeries and lost his fastball, leading to his release by the Giants in October 1982 and retirement the following year. He returned to USC to earn his master's degree in finance and worked for a San Francisco finance consulting firm.

Life after baseball

Considering a career in the Secret Service, Bordley hooked up with agents he had met during then-Vice President George H.W. Bush's visit to Shea Stadium. He applied for a job and, after 2 1/2 years of due diligence by the government, was hired in 1988.

Bordley left the Secret Service in 2008 and joined the Office of Internal Affairs in conjunction with Homeland Security - dealing with issues ranging from border corruption and drug cartels to the Muslim Brotherhood - but not before an assignment in Russia during which he met the woman he'd marry. He and Maria have a 7-year-old son, Will.

"I'm glad I waited late to have a family," said Bordley, who's settling in Connecticut. "I probably couldn't have done it earlier with the lifestyle I was leading. These are my best years right now."

Regrets?

"Just getting hurt. Nothing from an effort standpoint," Bordley said. "To be honest, I lived the dream, and it's always a part of your life. You can always say you were a major-leaguer."